Over the past decade, tremendous strides have been made in the realm of notebook computers (which may also alternatively be referred to as “notebooks”, “laptops” or “laptop computers” in the present discussion). Currently in development, and likely indicative of an upcoming general trend, are notebooks that have wireless area network (WAN) subsystems that can be powered on when the notebook itself is powered off. Such a WAN subsystem is thus capable of receiving email from a push mail server and storing the email in a WAN Drive which can be flash memory or any storage that maintains state without power when the notebook is powered off.
As encouraging as this general development may be, several challenges and limitations have already been coming into focus. Generally, the memory has a fixed size and can easily fill up. Conventional solutions implement a first-in-first-out system where oldest mail is deleted to allow new mail to be stored, but of course this may result in important mail at the end of the queue never being read by a user.
Further, users may well see some utility in being able to respond to mail without having to power up their system, since (for instance) loading WINDOWS XP or WINDOWS VISTA, or any OS (operating system), connecting to a network, and running a corporate Virtual Private Network (VPN) is very time consuming. None of this is facilitated in the least, of course, if no wireless or wired network connection is actually available.
Accordingly, compelling needs have been recognized in connection with not only embracing emerging capabilities afforded by WAN subsystems in notebooks, but in optimizing their use in a manner to avoid the pitfalls and inconveniences as described above.